Khirullah Said Wali Khairkhwa
| place_of_birth = Kandahar | date_of_arrest = 2001 | place_of_arrest = | arresting_authority = | date_of_release = | place_of_release = | date_of_death = | place_of_death = | citizenship = Afghanistan | detained_at = Guantanamo | id_number = 579 | group = | alias = | charge = No charge (extrajudicial detention) | penalty = | status = Still held in Guantanamo | csrt_summary = | csrt_transcript = | occupation = | spouse = | parents = | children = }} Khirullah Said Wali Khairkhwa is an Afghan currently held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number is 579. American intelligence analysts estimate that Khairkhwa was born in 1967, in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Press reports have referred to him as "Mullah" and "Maulavi", two different honorifics for referring to senior muslim clerics. Khirullah held various government posts, both before the Taliban took over Afghanistan, including a police official in Kabul, and finally, Governor of Herat Province. Some reports have said he had been the Taliban's deputy minister of the interior, interim minister of the interior, the minister of the interior, and the Minister of Information. Khirullah was also to serve as the Taliban's Minister of Foreign Affairs spokesman, giving interviews to the British Broadcasting Corporation and the Voice of America. In 2000 the Washington Post described Khirullah as one of the progressive members of the Taliban. Khirullah Said Wali Khairkhwa arrived at Guantanamo on May 1, 2002, and has been held there for . mirror Identity Two Afghans were held in Guantanamo who intelligence analysts believed were Khirullah Khairkhwa. In the winter of 2003, about fifteen months after Khairkhwa's capture, an Afghan of Uzbek descent, named Abdullah Khan was captured based on a denunciation.Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Abdullah Khan's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 14-20 The Afghan who denounced him claimed that Abdullah Khan was actually Khirullah Khairkhwa. Khan was also transported to Guantanamo. Khan told his own Combatant Status Review Tribunal that, until very shortly before his Tribunal convened, his interrogators kept insisting that he was lying about his identity, and that he was really Khirullah Khairkhwa. Khan told his Tribunal that when other detainees told him that the real Khirullah Khairkhwa was already in another compound in Guantanamo, and had been there for more than a year he started to plead with his interrogators to check the prison roster, so they could see, for themselves, that he was not the real Khirullah Khairkhwa. Khan noted that the accusation that he was really Khirullah Khairkhwa was dropped from the allegations assembled to present to his Tribunal, and were replaced with a totally new set of allegations, which he had never been interrogated about. The new allegations said he was a spy-master code-named "Khirullah". Khairkhwa's Police career After Afghan fighters, with aid and support from the CIA, ousted communists from control of Afghanistan, Afghanistan went through a four-year period of civil war. The nominal Afghan administrations really only controlled the capital Kabul, and its surrounding area. The leaders of the local militias that fought the Soviets, and their local puppet regime were the defacto rulers of their local areas. During his Tribunal Khairkhwa testified that after fighting against the Soviet occupiers he was rewarded with a position as a Police officer in Kabul.Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Khirullah Said Wali Khairkhwa's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 67-73 According to the Washington Post Khairkhwa served as Kabul's chief of police after its capture by the Taliban in 1996.Pentagon Identifies More Gitmo Detainees, Washington Post, April 20, 2006 He also served as interior minister and the governor of Herat province. Attitudes towards women's rights According to Pamela Constable, writing in the Washington Post Khairkhwa was regarded as one of the senior Taliban with the most progressive attitude towards women, yet during a 2000 meeting with Dr Sadako Ogata, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees he compared the treatment of women in Afghanistan with the treatment of dogs : American detention in Kandahar Fazal Mohammad, detained on suspicion a former Taliban commander, was released from American custody for medical reasons in mid-2002. *He reported that he had been held in American custody in Kandahar with about 300 other captives, including Maulawi Khirullah Khairkhwa, and Khairkhwa's former boss, the Taliban's last foreign minister, Wakil Ahmed Mutawakil. *He reported that they were fed starvation rations, and their wounds were left untreated. *He reported that captives were subjected to sexual abuse, and attacks from dogs. Combatant Status Review Tribunal Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct a competent tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status. Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were ''lawful combatants -- rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration's definition of an enemy combatant. Khairkhwa chose to participate in his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. Allegations #''Detainee was appointed the Taliban spokesperson for the BBC and Voice of America. #''Detainee was appointed the governor of Herat Providence in Afghanistan from 1999 to 2001. Detainee worked for Mullah Omar while serving as governor. The detainee had control over police and military functions in Herat to include administration of the Taliban's two largest divisions. Detainee was required to route all decisions through Mullah Omar. #''Detainee was present at a clandestine meeting in October 2001 between Taliban and Iranian officials in which Iran pledged to assist the Taliban in their war with the United States. Witness Khairkhwa served as a witness during Abdul Rahim Muslimdost's CSRT.Summarized transcripts (.pdf), from Abdul Rahim Muslimdost's Combatant Status Review Tribunal - pages 1-16 One of the allegations against Muslimdost was that he worked for the Governor of Herat. And Khairkhwa, who had been the Governor of Herat, confirmed that the two of them had first met in Guantanamo. Muslimdost, and his brother, were both determined to have never been enemy combatants in the first place, and were released, following their Combatant Status Review Tribunals.Guantanamo Bay Detainees Classifed as "No Longer Enemy Combatants", Washington Post Administrative Review Board hearings | pages= 1 | author=Spc Timothy Book | date= March 10, 2006 | accessdate=2007-10-12 }}]] Detainees who were determined to have been properly classified as "enemy combatants" were scheduled to have their dossier reviewed at annual Administrative Review Board hearings. The Administrative Review Boards weren't authorized to review whether a detainee qualified for POW status, and they weren't authorized to review whether a detainee should have been classified as an "enemy combatant". They were authorized to consider whether a detainee should continue to be detained by the United States, because they continued to pose a threat—or whether they could safely be repatriated to the custody of their home country, or whether they could be set free. First annual Administrative Review Board hearing A Summary of Evidence memo prepared for his Administrative Review Board. The following primary factors favor continued detention |- | |- | :b. || Training |- | |- | || :The detainee received military training for a short period of time at Camp Marof, near Kandahar, when the detainee was in his teens. |- | |- | :'''c. || Connections/Associations |- | |- | || |- | |- | :'''d. || Intent |- | |- | || :The detainee has encouraged other detainees to cause problems, including making noise, not eating, killing themselves, not showering, and pushing the door during a search. |- | |- | :'''e. || 'Detainee Actions and Statements |- | |- | || |} The following primary factors favor release or transfer Second annual Administrative Review Board hearing A Summary of Evidence memo prepared for his Administrative Review Board. Transcript Khirullah Said Wali Khairkhwa chose to participate in his second annual Administrative Review Board hearing. | title=Summary of Administrative Review Board Proceedings for ISN 579 | author=OARDEC | publisher=United States Department of Defense | month=June | year=2006 | pages=pages 34–44 | accessdate=2007-10-07 }} The DoD published an eleven page transcript in September 2009. Transfer to the USA On August 31, 2009 ''Corrections One, a trade journal for the prison industry, speculated that "Khirullah Said Wali Khairkhwa" was one of ten captives they speculated might be moved to a maximum security prison in Standish, Michigan. References External links * Who Are the Remaining Prisoners in Guantánamo? Part Five: Captured in Pakistan Andy Worthington, September 29, 2010 Category:Living people Category:Kandahar detention facility detainees Category:1967 births Category:Year of birth uncertain Category:People from Kandahar Category:Afghan extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Category:Pashtun people Category:People held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp no:Khirullah Said Wali Khairkhwa